Where to start with Avengers?

[Chino]

Both Avengers books are being used to fill in the gaps for SI so pick both of them up from the first SI tie in onward. Read the SI mini also, the outcome will surely shape the Avengers for a good long while so might as well get on board now. Before the SI ties in New Avengers was the better book.

Invincible Iron Man is pretty good, DoS was great but wont be around much longer I don't think so don't bother.

[Tigereyes]

I too have been reading the Marvel Essentials lately

So far I have read Spider-Man Essential 1, Avengers Essential 1, Doctor Strange Essential 1 and 2 and the Super Villain Team Up (just cause I love villains) and I am currently working my way through the Iron Man DVD-Rom concurrently.

By far the best of the bunch are the Doctor Strange Essentials up until the end of Strange Tales. The stuff in Marvel Premiere was mediocre.

Spider-Man is a fun read too, although Parker sure had alot of love interests for being a nerd.

The astonishing tales issues in Super Villain Team Up were some fun nostalgic sleeper issues but when the actual ongoing started, not so much.

The Iron Man stuff is off to a great start, for some reason, I pictured Happy much younger than he initially appears.

However, I found the first 24 issues of the Avengers to be bland.

The strangest thing though is all heroines and love interests were portrayed as inferior and very soap opera-ish (if that's a word) to their male counterparts, yet the villainesses, were strong, powerful and really some of the better creations of the time. I'm talking about the Enchantress, Umar, and Black Widow.

[hawkeye comeback]

stick with the avengers it the next essential has some great stories in it you get the beginning of roy thomos's run which is one of the great avengers runs

[Will.S]

Ok so im a huge fan of the avengers, Thor in particular. But Ive never been into comics till 4 months ago. I want to read the stories from the begining, but getting a first issue is insane. Any practical Ideas out there?

Marvel is reprinting the Avengers from the beginning in the form of Avengers Classic as well.

I beleive 12 issues are out, they're 2.99 each but they also contain back up material that complements the main story.

[Zeke0990]

Alright, so I am usually a DC fan, but I have been wanting to get started with the Marvel Universe, and I was wondering where I could start if I wanted to get into The Avengers. Don't want to go too far back, like the 60's, but still want to get a good idea of how they got started, and follow a couple series of teh Avengers.

And on a side note, any good comics that revolve around Gambit?
Thanks!

- ZeKe -

[Witchfan]

Get started with Volume 3, issues 1-34. This is the Kurt Busiek/ George Perez run which revitalized the team after it had sucked for awhile. If you like it, then try finding reprints of older issues. The best eras are Roy Thomas/John Buscema era of the late 60s and early 70s (41-104), the George Perez/ John Byrne era of the late 70s (141-202), the Roger Stern/ John Buscema era of the late 80s (255-285), and Busiek/Perez. Or you could ignore team's history and just start with New Avengers #1, since Bendis reinevented the team at that point.

[XPac]

I definately thing you should start off with New Avengers by Bendis.

That's not only a very convinient entry point into the Avengers, but the Marvel Universe as a whole. Bendis basically changed New Avengers into the spine of the entire MU.

If you get the first New Avengers trade, and from there just follow the MU events (House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion) to get yourself caught up.

[Will.S]

Get started with Volume 3, issues 1-34. This is the Kurt Busiek/ George Perez run which revitalized the team after it had sucked for awhile. If you like it, then try finding reprints of older issues. The best eras are Roy Thomas/John Buscema era of the late 60s and early 70s (41-104), the George Perez/ John Byrne era of the late 70s (141-202), the Roger Stern/ John Buscema era of the late 80s (255-285), and Busiek/Perez. Or you could ignore team's history and just start with New Avengers #1, since Bendis reinevented the team at that point.

I definately thing you should start off with New Avengers by Bendis.

That's not only a very convinient entry point into the Avengers, but the Marvel Universe as a whole. Bendis basically changed New Avengers into the spine of the entire MU.

If you get the first New Avengers trade, and from there just follow the MU events (House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion) to get yourself caught up.

I would say either the Busiek or the Bendis Avengers are great entry points although obviously both have a vastly different feel. Both runs are very accessible although Busiek will reference a lot more events from the past than Bendis although Bendis does it as well throughout his run.

From then on you can pretty much branch out to the other stuff.

[by1968]

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a good miniseries that summarizes their origin and basically runs through the first 16 issues of the original series. It's a way to learn about their origin without going back and reading the 1960s issues.

Like someone else said, New Avengers is good for an overview of the entire MU since it's been a big part of most of the big events that have gone on. Next issue of Mighty Avengers should be a good jumping on point for a more "classic" style of Avengers.

[Will.S]

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a good miniseries that summarizes their origin and basically runs through the first 16 issues of the original series. It's a way to learn about their origin without going back and reading the 1960s issues.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a great book that can be read both as a stand alone mini series and with the 60's issues.

However after having read the 60's issues, I think EMH reads much better after reading the old issues first since the reader will get a better sense of context of what's going on and why certain characters are where they are.

[Rev. Calibos]

If you're up for a great afternoon's read I would suggest Avengers Forever.

It acts a great overview of Avengers history since the start and irons out the little hiccups along the way.

I also want to echo the other sentiments of 'Avengers vol. 3 1-30'

Great, awesome stuff, Perez artwork and Kurt Busiek at the helm made for some of the best Avengers stories ever made.

[Will.S]

If you're up for a great afternoon's read I would suggest Avengers Forever.

It acts a great overview of Avengers history since the start and irons out the little hiccups along the way.

It's a great overview and also a great story but I honestly would never recommend that one to a new reader since it references a lot of Avengers history as well as using multiple versions of the same characters. Even as an Avengers fan who knew a good deal about them, I found Forever to be a bit hard to get through at times.

[Brannon]

If you're up for a great afternoon's read I would suggest Avengers Forever.

It acts a great overview of Avengers history since the start and irons out the little hiccups along the way.

I also want to echo the other sentiments of 'Avengers vol. 3 1-30'

Great, awesome stuff, Perez artwork and Kurt Busiek at the helm made for some of the best Avengers stories ever made.

Yep, Avengers vol.3 1-30 and Avengers Forever would be the perfect place to start for a more "classic" introduction to the Avengers universe without having to start at the very beginning in the 60's. (Both series began in 1998, I believe.)

To top it off, the art by Perez and Pacheco are some of the best not only of their careers but some the best ever seen in mainstream comics. Period.

I

[Brannon]

I'd also suggest that if you have access to any version of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (there are tons of these online) to read about the teams history before you begin reading. Even the longer histories are relatively brief with the handbooks and it would be a quick and easy way to clue you in on the key aspects of the mythos.

[Assemble]

The first 20 issues are must reads. I know you said you don't want to go back to the 60's, but they are truly must read books. The first 25 are collected in Essential Avengers Volume 1.

Then I would go to Dissassemble, New Avengers Volume 1 - current and the Mighty Avengers.
Thats just to get current.

Or just go to wikipedia... and read it there. Same thing. Less time. Less money.